Speckled Easter Malt Cake

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When I was a little girl, I loved Malted Milk. I would drink the chocolate and vanilla malted milk all the time, hot or cold. I would make malted milk shakes, sprinkle malted powder on ice cream and cereal. I clearly had a full on love affair with malt as well as a major sweet tooth. Now there are some people, like my husband, who cannot stand any kind of malted milk, even whoppers. What is wrong with you malt hating people?! But this Speckled Easter Malt Cake is determined to change your mind!

This Speckled Easter Cake does have a touch of malt in the cake and frosting layers for extra Easter time flavor. But even if you aren’t a great fan of malt you’ll still love this cake, because it’s so cool looking and it tastes amazing with a balanced vanilla and chocolate combo.

This vibrant cake has fluffy, toasty malted vanilla cake with layers of whipped chocolate malt buttercream and a vanilla speckled shell. A giant Butterscotch Birds Nest tops it all off for an Easter Cake that makes a statement.

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A Strange Confession

Besides my love of Cadbury Creme Eggs that I told you about in Marshmallow Filled Chocolate Cupcakes, I am obsessed with Malted Milk Eggs. In fact, I have this really weird secret that I’m going to let you in on.

I keep a mini Snickers or bag of M&Ms in my purse at all times. During Easter when they have the limited speckled malted eggs, I switch them out. But my secret is, if I am ever in a scary situation like, fear of being stranded in a snowstorm or possible car accident, I eat them like crazy in case it’s my last meal. Yes, I am a strange woman. And even in life or death situations, my first thought goes to food. Right now I have Mini Malted Eggs hidden in my purse just in case.

As if my secret from Tiramisu Cupcakes wasn’t lame enough, right?! I really need some excitement in my life!

On to Easter baking!

Malted Vanilla Cake

Malted milk powder has a creamy, toasted, somewhat nutty taste. It is made up of dried evaporated milk, barley extracts, sodium bicarbonate, and wheat flour. When used in baking, the malt flavor develops in the oven to give a slightly butterscotch taste. There are two kinds of malted milk, diastic and non diastic. Non diastic Malted milk is used for this Malted milk cake. If you love browned butter baked goods like my Brown Butter Hummingbird Cake, definitely try malted milk in baking.

This Speckled Easter Malt Cake begins with a fluffy malted vanilla cake. The cake is a flavor combo of vanilla and a deep nuttiness that comes from baking malted milk.

For the cake pictured I used three 6 inch cake pans.

To make the cake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter the pans and lightly dust with flour.

Then mix whole milk with malted milk powder and set aside.

Use a stand mixer or hand mixer to cream butter and sugar on medium speed for a few minutes, until fluffy and pale. Then add eggs and vanilla bean paste. The vanilla bean paste gives a speckled look to the inside of the cake and a lovely vanilla flavor. Best for two more minutes.

Then add half of the cake flour, along with salt and baking powder. Turn mixer to lowest setting and mix to combine. Then add the malted milk and greek yogurt. Finish with remaining flour. Divide evenly into cake pans and bake for approximately 28 minutes.

Then cool the cakes for 10 minutes before turning them out onto cooking racks. Cool completely.

Chocolate Malted Filling

While the cakes are cooling, work on your chocolate malt frosting filling and the speckled blue vanilla buttercream outer frosting. Do note that you can use the robin blue vanilla buttercream for both the filling and decorating. Using the blue frosting will lessen the malted flavor and also make this an all-vanilla cake.

Begin with the robin blue buttercream. In a stand mixer, begin by giving the softened butter a minute of beating on medium speed. Then turn the mixer to the lowest speed and gradually add in the powdered sugar. Once it comes together, turn the speed up to medium high and whip for about 4 minutes. Next, drizzle in milk and vanilla extract. Lastly, add in blue gel food coloring one drop at a time until desired color is reached. Remove to a piping bag fitted with a large round tip and set aside.

Then clean the bowl and whisk attachment to make the chocolate malt filling. Cream the butter for a minute. Then add powdered sugar on lowest speed. Then once it comes together, add the malted milk powder and cocoa powder. Add the milk and vanilla extract. Then let it whip for about 5 minutes, until fluffy.

Assembling Speckled Easter Malted Cake

To make this Speckled Easter Malted Cake, you will need a few things. If you don’t have the special equipment already, check out these affiliate links at no cost to you, and thanks for supporting my blog!

Start by putting a dollop of buttercream onto the cardboard round to hold your cake in place. Then place a cake layer on top. Take half of the chocolate malt filling and spread evenly. Then top with another cake layer and repeat. Then place on third layer.

Then pipe large rings of frosting around the cake and use what’s left on top. Smooth out with a smooth cake spatula.

Full disclosure, if you’ve ever tried to get sharp edges on a cake, it’s a lot harder than those cake artists make it look! So if you have trouble, feel free to shoot me an email. While I am no expert cake artist, I do have a few tricks!

For the robin egg speckled look, mix together unsweetened cocoa powder with vanilla extract. This part is fun and can get messy. So I let my kids in on the fun. Dip a paint brush into the mixture and flick over cake.

Top with a Butterscotch Birds Nest. And make sure to watch me making the Birds Nests with Anthony Slaughter and Dana Dean live on “Show Me St. Louis” 4/12/19 at 10 am!

Connect with me on Instagram to share your Speckled Easter Malt Cake pics!